CCM 170 Time

It’s my turn to host over at Crafty Cardmakers this time and I have chosen Time as my theme. I am happy for you to interpret that anyway you like, but if it’s not obvious then please tell us how it relates to time.  I am a little tardy with my post because I have had a nightmare week and didn’t get it finished on time.

I started with a 5x7 canvas panel that I had already started but really didn’t like, but it was in the finished colours so that influenced everything else I did. I splodged various Paper Artsy Fresco colours on and then added a couple of stamps from the Ding and Dong range in the background. The main image is also from the same range. I stamped the components onto three different shades of Elizabeth Craft Shimmer Sheetz with stazon. The main body/clock I embossed around the two large circles and then flipped it over and embossed between them to give it some body (no pun intended). I also coloured the beak in yellow to give some definition and added some colour to alternate stripes on the legs, and the clock edge.

The wings and head plummage I accentuated with a white sharpie poster paint pen. I used brads for the eye and to hold the hands of an old clock, I had dismantled, in place. Finally I popped a few tiny gems into place in the centres of the stamped clocks in the background. The craft sheets were a nightmare to stick to each other. I ended up having to use Glossy Accents, but sadly it did leak onto the front of the bird and I had to try and repair it with copics. The upside is it’s really shimmery in real life. The photo doesn’t pick up how the colours change on the metal sheets.

I am entering this into:-

Art Journal Journey – Nature’s Wonders
Crafting When We Can – #125 Things With Wings
Crafty Boots - Use a Stamp
Creative Corner – Anything But A Card
Delicious Doodles – All Creatures Great and Small
Digi Choosday – #32 Anything Goes
Ellibelles Creative Moments – #6 Critters and Creatures Linky Party
Happy Little Stampers – Aug: Mixed Media Chall – Metal
Kitty Bee Aloha Friday – #77 All About Animals
Lemon Shortbread – #21 Anything Goes
Love To Create – #16 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
Pile It On – #114 Make Your Own Background
QKR Stampede – #203 Things With Wings
Rhedd’s Creative Spirit – August
Try It On Tuesday – Leftovers and Scraps (my clock hands were left over from a clock I dismantled for the cogs)
Unicorn Challenge – #12 Animal Kingdom

DV #136 Christmas in July

Our challenge at Dream Valley to day is Christmas in July and as I sit here in my room roasting inside at 26 C I am wishing that perhaps it really were.

We are sponsored by Pink Gem Designs.

My Chsristmas offering is a gift bag. I started with a plain white bag. The floral arrangment has various berries and leaves from my stash, but the poinsettia I diecut myself. The paper was a magazine freebie, and the little tree was in a pack of mdf Christmas embellishments. Cannot recall where the little string of lights came from. Sentiment is a Sue Wilson one. I added some glitter around the edge of the paper and to the tree to look like tinsel.

I am entering this into:-

ABC Christmas Chall – N for No Rules
Broken Fairy Challenge – #6 AG with a Twist of Christmas
Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ July: AG
Christmas Cards All Year Round – July: AG
Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge – #290 AG Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge Extra – July: AG
Fussy and Fancy – #168 Christmas In July
Just For Fun Rubber Stamps – Christmas in July With a Little Sparkle
Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Chall – #76 Christmas in July
My Time to Craft – #325 Christmas In July
Send a Smile 4 Kids – Christmas in July 4 Kids
Sparkles Christmas Chall – #66 Snowflakes (They’re are round my sentiment)
Sparkles Monthly Chall – #82 Christmas in July
Sweet Stampin’ Christmas - July: AG
The 12 Months of Christmas – #19 Optional Theme Christmas Blooms

CCM #168 Bling It Up

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is one of my least favourite, but only cos glitter seems to stick to me like glue, it’s bling it up. We would love to see all your blingy creations that are sparkling with gems or glitter, or perhaps shiny mirri card or foil.

I hate glitter. Three weeks after you last used it, countless showers and hair washes later, there you are sitting in the Dr’s office when your eye wanders down the side of your nose and twinkling away is a speck of glitter!

Anyhow, my dislike of using glitter aside, it does make for a blingtastic finish!

I used a Sweet Poppy stencil onto linen card and spread texture paste through. I then added clitter in three different colours, purple, green and teal, until it was covered. When it was fully dry I used a Clarity wordchain stamp and a Kaleidoscope inkpad to stamp the word kisses. The image and stamp together are meant to indicate the phrase ‘butterfly kisses’ which my Daughter used to give me when she was small.

I matted onto green satin mirri and that onto a card blank I created myself with a Tonic die.

I am entering this into:-

4 Crafty Chicks – #306 Summer
Crafts & Me – July: AG with optional Summer Memories (butterflies flitting around)
DL Art Thankful Thursday – #183 Summertime
Little Red Wagon – #349 It’s Summertime
Live & Love Crafts – #49 Sprinkles of Summer
Morgan’s Artworld – #14 Animals
Moving Along With the Times – #24 No Design Papers
Seize The Birthday – Birds, Bees or Butterflies
Sparkle N Sprinkle – July: AG with Loose Glitter
The Corrosive Challenge – July:#7 Nature/Animals
The Crafters Cafe – #152 Things With Wings

DV #135 Colours of your Flag

We have an unusal challenge for you this time around at Dream Valley. It’s a colour challenge with a difference. In honour of American Indpendence Day, we want to see what you can come up with that uses the colours of your flag! I’m expecting a great deal of Red,White and Blue as I suspect a lot of our entrants are in the UK or the US, but I am sure there will be many lovely European variations, along with other parts of the world too.

We are sponsored by Angies Cards and Gifts with a prize of three of their digis.

As I am in the UK my colours are from the Union Flag and are Red, White and Blue.

My image is a Kanban stamp, can’t recall what’s it’s called but there are two dress forms and a male figure plus some steampunky extras. I coloured the image with copics and then went over just the skirt with a clear Spectrum Sparkle pen. I also edged down one side with a La Blanche swirl stamp to introduce a bit more blue into the image area.

My background is a Candy Button design, but I have overstamped it with the red script and the red circles. The splatters and the rest of it were already on the paper. It’s all matted onto red mirri card. A sentiment and some clear gems I coloured red completed it.

This second picture is much closer in colour, but because of the lighting conditions does not capture the sparkle that the top picture does.

I look forward to seeing you over at Dream Valley with your flag’s colours, and please remember to tell us what those colours are, and where you are from.

I am entering this into:-

Blessings Ink Amusing Challenge – Red, White and Blue
Color My Heart – Color Dare #200 Ruby, Sapphire and Colonial White
Glitter and Sparkle – #195 Red, White and Blue
Inkspirational – #112 Anything Goes with Red
Jo’s Scrap Shack – Fun Day Friday #145 Red, White and Blue
Kraftin’ Kimmie – #338 Red, White and Blue
Melonheadz Friends – Red, White and Blue
Paper Sweeties – #45 July 2016 I used the colours on the board
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Red, White and/or Blue
The Color Sisters – #34 Colour Challenge
The Paper Girls – #107 Be Patriotic (the Colours of my flag)

CCM #167 Shabby Chic

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is Shabby Chic, and I am pleased to say we have the fabulous Woodware sponsoring us with a £12 voucher to be used in one of their online retailers.

My card has been created from the components of the new Daisy Days stamps set and accompanying CD. The papers are from the cd, but the floral image, and the butterflies come from the stamp set. They are in component parts so you can put them together in a whole host of different ways so you are not always confined by having to use the same image.

Mine started off as a bit of a disaster. I had stamped and masked and stamped and masked and finally went to remove the, by now, very inky masks, only to tip one upside down right in the middle of my creation leaving a nasty black blob. As I didn’t want to just bung a butterfly over it, I had to start again.

I stamped onto mixed media paper and then watercoloured the image, the same with the butterflies. I also stamped the butterflies directly onto the background paper, which comes from the cd, so that the antennae and curly bits beneath the butterflies would still be there by I could be less pernickety in trying to cut them out! I also added glitter highlights to the flowers and all over the butterfly wings.

I distressed all the edges before sticking it all down and then added a die cut sentiment from Craftwork Cards’ Year of Sentiments pad, and half a dozen black and aurora borealis gems.

I am entering this into:-

Alphabet Challenge – I for Ink It Up
Crazy 4 Challenges – #342 Add a Butterfly
Creative Playground – #5 Tic, Tac, Toe (Top line – Gems, Sentiment, Flowers)
Fussy and Fancy – #166 Say It With Flowers
Inkspirational – #111 Masking
Morgan’s Art World – #13 Use Patterned Paper
OSAAT – #265 Anything Goes With Flowers
Penny Black – June: Flower Power
Polkadoodles – Week 24 Use A Die Cut
Robyn’s Fetish – #322 Butterflies
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Add Some Shimmer
Stampotique – #250 Butterflies and Flowers and All Things Garden

DV #134 Summer Colours

Hi and welcome to another Dream Valley challenge. We are challenging you to use Summer Colours, and are sponsored by Di’s Digi Designs.

This is my version of the Rio Olympics, which are due later this Summer. Clearly this was the award ceremony for the balancing bones event! As you can see old Grumpy Cat is not pleased he only placed third, whilst the bird is trying to gain some tips by sneaking a peek at the Gold Medallist with his winning balance. Naturally as I don’t know anyone personally competing in the Rio Olympics I turned it into a birthday card!

I made the background by first cutting a shaped diecut out of some card which I overlaid onto the background card, over the top of a Clarity stencil. I then inked through with Tim Holtz’s DIs in Picked Rapsberry, Peacock Feathers, Scattered Straw and Citron.

My images are all from Katzelkraft. From the Les chiens, Les Chats Russes and Les Piafs stamps sheets, along with the accesories and the winner’s podium from Les drôles d'accessoires.

I coloured them with DIs and copics.

The sentiment diecut is Spellbinders and the Number 1 sentiment comes from Crafty Individuals’ Winning Hare.

This second pic shows the colours a bit more brightly, but makes the images appear flat to the card, and they are dimensional as I added them with foam tape, which you can see in the top pic.

The whole thing was matted only purple shimmer paper and onto a scalloped card base.

I am entering this into:-

Addicted to Stamps – #129 Anything Summer (the Rio Olympics)
Alphabet Challenge – H For Handcoloured Image
Cardz For Gals – #24 Summer Fun (Rio Olympics)
Crafty Gals Corner – #76 Summer Fun (Rio Olympics)
Creative Artiste – #15 Anything Goes
Digi Designs Challenge – Summer (Rio Olympics)
Ecclectic Ellapu – June: Pink Team-Midsummer (Rio Olympics)
Inky Impressions – June: Summertime (Rio Olympics)
Little Claire’s Designs – #70 Create A Scene
OSAAT – #264 Anything Goes With Layer It Up
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Summer Fun (Rio Olympics)
Polkadoodles – #24 Use A Diecut
Stamping Sensations – June: Feature a Creature
That’s Crafty – In The Pink (I presumed it wasn’t just pink as it didn’t say that!)
The Corrosive Challenge – June: #6 Lots of Layers

CCM #166 For a Special Man

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is themed around Father’s Day, next Sunday in the UK, and is for a Special Man. Because we don’t all still have our Father’s we are happy for anything created for a special man in your life.

My card was created for my Brother In Law’s Birthday. I used papers from Basic Grey on a black card which I made using the Spellbinders Card Creator Happy Day die. By the way those levels of pink, lemon etc on the steps aren’t actually there. It’s the chiffon background showing through the gaps!

My stamps and matching dies are all from Heartfelt Creations’ Winking Frog range.

The main and largest image is Fiddle’n Frog, the others were from the Leaping Frogs stamp and die set, which consists of two borders one of the toadstools and the other of the frogs, which I stamped, coloured and cut and then trimmed into seperate sections. The little bees are from Froggy Frame stamp/die combo which was a Create and Craft exclusive set.

Because the main card and the layers were diecut, and I didn’t fancy cutting out seperate mats, I did some faux stitching with a white pen to give a bit more definition to the layers.

I love Heartfelt products. This card cleverly folds flat for postage, but as my BIL only lives three streets away that wasn’t a problem. The sentiment is also from Fiddle’n Frog stamp set.

I am entering this into:-

Aloha Friday Challenge – #73 Masculine Cards/For Dad
Alphabet Challenge – H For Handcoloured Image
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards – #111 Use a Die Cut
Craft for the Craic – June: Something Masculine
Crafty Calendar – June: Fathers Day/For a Male
Happy Little Stampers – June: Anything Goes with Dies
In The Dragon’s Lair – June: One for the Guy
Polkadoodles – Week 22 For the Boys
QKR Stampede – #195 One For the Guys
Stamping Sensations – June: Feature a Creature